Prepare to welcome three of the most respected graphic novel creators in the world, as Charles Burns (Black Hole), Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve), and Chris Ware (Acme Novelty Library) visit Toronto this November to debut their new books. These three contemporaries and friends will each show an all-new audio/visual presentation based on their new works, both interacting with one another and the audience. This is the centerpiece autumn event to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of venerable Toronto comics and alternative culture shop The Beguiling, at the nearby newly renovated Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (506 Bloor St. W.) in the heart of the Annex neighborhood.

Sure to be the talk of the literary world this fall and winter, these three new releases blur the lines between ‘traditional’ graphic novels, illustration, and the publishing avant-garde!

Charles Burns’ stunning follow-up to 2010’s bestselling X’ed Out is The Hive. It takes readers further into the recesses of the diseased world of X’ed Out, shattering the boundaries between comics and the people who read them.

Adrian Tomine’s New York Drawings collects over a decade of the comics, illustrations, and covers produced by the artist for publishing institution The New Yorker, alongside a number of other rare and uncollected pieces in a lavish oversized hard cover.

Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth has been hailed as a modern literary masterpiece, and Building Stories is Ware’s first and much-anticipated graphic novel length follow-up. Ware experiments further with form and medium: the story is a literal box. Beautifully presented as variously formatted and sized comics, graphic novels, newspapers and pamphlets, the ensemble creates a fascinating and compelling portrait of a seemingly ordinary young woman, and the building where she lives.

All three of these compelling arguments for the necessary survival of the printed word will be on sale at The Beguiling in advance of this event, each on different release dates (see below).

Admission to the 25th anniversary event is $10, but admissions tickets are free (while supplies last) with every advance purchase of any of the above new books at The Beguiling.